Time
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: "Maybe the greater good isn't always about numbers," Walter said quietly. "If the world is better when people are happy, maybe that's how you help the greater good. By helping yourself." (Slight spoilers for 2.04?)


**So I had like 90% of this little blurb-y thing written and then Robots aired and I was like HEY THERE THIS IS KINDA LIKE WHAT I HAVE DRAFTED so I decided to edit and then post it.**

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"You okay?"

She craned her neck around, too comfortable leaning on the wall to straighten up. "Hey."

"Busy day today," Walter said. "Strange day. It's rare our technologies and combined I.Q. isn't what ultimately saves the day."

"It's kinda a relief though," Paige said. "In a way. It shows that some things can be solved without us. Some things are greater than numbers and theories. Shows that the weight of the world isn't only on us."

"It challenges the way we think."

"That's been happening a lot lately," she said as he leaned on the wall next to her, staring out over the city. "You know, you brought me here to translate the world for you. And you guys have made me think differently about a lot of things...and the events of the world have done the same for you. What do they call that, symbiotic?"

Walter smiled briefly, then furrowed his brow the way he usually did when he was thinking hard. "This past year has...challenged...everything I've ever known. I used to think that the Greater Good meant number of lives saved in the given moment, but then we risked the lives of three people to save Sylvester, one. Refraining from stating facts...that saved nearly a dozen people on that submarine. And then this case. Those people are...are literally alive because they love each other." He shook his head. "How do we even determine what the greater good is? There's too many theoretic concepts involved."

"Like the people who survived that shooting," Paige said. "The guy who came out of surgery to find out his family didn't make it and said he wished he'd never woken up. He's a number, he's alive, but he's miserable. Greater good suggests that saving him was the right option but he doesn't agree...and it's his life, right? Isn't whether or not the right call was made up to him?"

"Maybe the greater good isn't always about numbers," Walter said quietly. "Maybe happiness is the goal. Fulfillment...being content, whatever that means to each person." He turned his head slightly, raising his eyes to look in hers. "If the world is better when people are happy, maybe allowing yourself to be happy is benefiting the greater good."

"And maybe it's okay to be a little selfish sometimes," she said. "We're always on call. But we aren't always on duty. And in this job we never know..." her close proximity to him and the context of their conversation was making her heart pound in a way that would tell her she was in trouble if she didn't already know it. "We never know what could happen to us." She looked away. "And if we die having not explored all our options, having never really lived..." she shifted her gaze back to him. "That can't be what's best. For anyone."

Walter straightened up, shifting from leaning on the roof to face her. "I know that robotics is simple. It isn't complicated. But if you stay in robotics forever...you become static. Flat. You don't change, you don't challenge yourself or better yourself. You have to move forward eventually."

She stood up straight, cocking her head. "Is it time?"

"Well, I..." he cleared his throat. "I think acting on emotion...would make us feel more fulfilled, and if that's the best way to make the world a better place then..." he pressed his lips together and reached out, taking one of her hands, grateful that they'd been so open with each other because he knew that she would respond by curling her fingers around his own and that gave him a sense of familiarity with her that they didn't truly have quite yet. "Then the best way to do that would be acting on the strongest emotion, which for me..." he cleared his throat again. "For me is...this."

They stared at each other a long time – if Ralph had wanted to, he could have run up from the ground floor and interrupted them again. Then Paige reached out with her free hand, placed it on his chest and slid it up to his neck as he leaned forward, both their eyes falling closed just before their lips touched.

This kiss was different. Their first one had been awkward, hungry, frantic. Awkward because it was the first time, because they really had no idea going in if the physical chemistry was there. Hungry because the intensity surprised them, because they were almost overwhelmed by it. Frantic because it was forbidden, because they'd already agreed to just be friends and they thought they couldn't let it go farther but they wanted to, they wanted to. This one differed in all respects. She'd be lying if she pulled away and said she didn't want to go downstairs and get between him and his mattress and he'd be lying if he told her he wasn't thinking about the same scenario, but when they put space between their mouths again, she gave a little laugh and tucked her head into his neck and he tightened his arms around her and they stood there together, enjoying _this_ closeness.

This time, there was nothing awkward about it. This time, they knew their connection was there. This time it didn't have to end so soon, there was no worry of it getting out of control, of going too fast.

This time, there was no devil sitting on their shoulders, telling them they couldn't.


End file.
